With The Power of Your People

What kinds of clients have you worked with?

I’ve worked with all types of companies in the US,
Europe and Asia. From health care to manufacturing,
pharmaceuticals to insurance, financial services to
software and government. I’ve worked with everyone
from the CEO to the newest janitor and feel
comfortable with all. The approach I use works
because it appeals to what is human in all of us no
matter the country or industry.

What size groups does this work best with?

Coaching works best with one person and one coach
at a time. Most Strategic Magic programs have a
maximum number of 24 and minimum of 12 at a time.

How long are your programs usually?

I work anywhere from one hour to three days. Three
days is the minimum required to get people to look
closely at their own behavior and have any chance
of changing it. A site away from work distractions
is necessary or the people attending never get a
chance to focus and the time is wasted. We can make
progress with half-day events. To really move
people to change you have to invest in longer
events.

Can we do this with just senior managers?

Yes, but why would you want to? The biggest
complaint from both senior managers and those they
manage is a lack of communication. With the group
away from the day-to-day why not have them learn
something, increase communication and begin
building relationships all at the same time?
Simple, useful and efficient.

How can you guarantee your work?

It's not much of a risk. I'm committed to doing
excellent work that delights my clients. The
guarantee helps me stay focused on what my clients
need and put necessary steps in place to create
success.

How long have you been doing this?

I’ve been doing this kind of work since 1988. I've
been working independently for the last 18 years.

Many have tried and failed to change our culture.

It's possible no one can change a culture. That
would be quite a feat. But there are three reasons
we may not need to.

First, much of what is often called culture is
really just bad habits that shouldn’t be graced
with the word culture. You can break bad habits
much faster than you can change culture. Plus you
don’t need to wait for anyone else to change a
habit you don’t want anymore.

Second, real culture change will happen from the
inside or it won’t happen at all. I ask people to
look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it
and decide what they’d like to change. Then I help
look at the steps necessary for that change. If
enough people in the right places start doing that,
what needs to change changes.

Third, and very important, is that we may already
have the foundation culture we need. We have a way
of acting at our business that may not align with
the very powerful human culture underneath. Perhaps
blame is the problem or maybe people have developed
the habit of waiting to be told what to do. This
way of working is not very effective and it's
usually not how people want to work. Fundamentally
people want to do work they value with people they
can trust. They want to be stretched and to use
their skills to accomplish something they are proud
of. Without changing anything we can appeal to the
human culture and bypass the less useful company
culture.

How can we start working with you?

Of course I want to make it easy for us to work
together. You might, for example, ask me to coach
an executive for a short period. Perhaps even
yourself.

You might have me do a readiness assessment. I
could facilitate a meeting or do a smaller GPS
reality check.

I like to laugh

We are going to work on serious issues but there is
no reason we can't have some fun doing it. I like
to laugh and, as seriously as I take my work, I
don't take myself too seriously.